Copyright case

[David Blair]

>Also, I'm pretty sure
>that US copyright law protects a specific version of the film, so a studio
>that authorizes a video release of a film claims copyright of that video
>data from the time it was released. So it wouldn't be legal to duplicate a
>video of a film that was now in the public domain, only a print of the film
>that was older than the length of copyright. 
>
I may be wrong, but I think that the primary ways of turning a pd title into a "copyrighted" title in the US are dvd encryption, which you can't break according to the newer law, and also, as Aaron said, new titles and music. Otherwise, I would guess you'd have to do a very major restoration, visibly recognizable. Outside of these issues, I think the situation is much as described in Japan... archives control print access, and may make you agree to a license to use, which is different from copyright. But, as I started, I may be wrong.


David